Composer Reacts to Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger (REACTION & ANALYSIS)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2024
- Bryan reacts to and talks about his thoughts on Transilvanian Hunger
ORIGINAL VIDEO // peaceville.bandcamp.com/track...
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It was said by a black metal artist in the 90s listening to this music is like listening to opera. You have to train your ear to hear the right things. Once you do you find an amazing genre of music, its beautiful and terrifying at the same time
When somebody says "Black Metal", this is the first song that comes to mind. This genre requires a certain amount of dedication. You have to put a lot of work in despite knowing that you will never get rich with this stuff. People can complain about BM all they want, but you have to respect musicians who are doing all this work for the love of art rather than money.
Should be noted that this album was intentionally very minimalist, for example the drums keeps the same pattern going throughout all the songs, except for a change up somewhere into the 6th track on the album, before later switching back. Same with keeping to minimal amount of differing riffs to each song as well. The album was recorded on a four-track recorder, which certainly helped the lo-fi nature of the sound.
I think there would have been other songs from Darkthrone that would have been a better introduction for you to listen to tbh, like In The Shadow of the Horns, or Cromlech from their first album Soulside Journey (which was a death metal album, before they switched over to playing black metal.)
Wow. That's taking repetition to a whole new level! I can appreciate their dedication to the idea (even if I doubt I'd enjoy the album).
@@CriticalReactions Please listen to Dimmu Borgir Stormblast, the original album from 96. Even if you don't do a reaction to it I think you'd love it. It's an amazing album and shows another side to black metal. A beautiful melodic style with more changes and not as repetitive. It's by far one of the best melodic black metal albums ever produced. Their first demo For All Tid is on the same level, it was released in 94. After Stormblast they changed their sound completely, if you've already listened to their later stuff you wouldn't recognize it as them
Yesss, the quintessential black metal track.
i see what u did there
Ahhhhhggggggg
Quintessence is better.....
Iconic riff, sounds great on acoustic.
Haha was playing it today itself :D
@@amrindersingh5952 Whenever I grab my guitar and just want to play the things I know, I play this riff, even though my tremolo sucks.
Classic bonfire song with friends.
Fenriz who's the drummer played all instruments on this album Transilvanian Hunger and next album Panzerfaust has said the minimalism in the album was inspired by american black metal band Von and also said he's irritated that people think this was their sound but this is like a one-off because their other black metal albums have more variation, even Under a Funeral Moon had more variation. If you want a Darkthrone song with better sound maybe The Claws of Time from Ravishing Grimness. By this point Darkthrone was just a studio band , their last concert was in 1991 altought they had a one-off in 1996 but the drummer Fenriz wasn't even plying cuz he had grew tired of playing live so guitarist and vocalist Nocturno Culto recruited the dudes from Satyricon to do the concert (which was in a small place and only 4 songs were played if i remember correctly).
Well, after the concert they said that they were never going to play live again and that their final album would be Goatlord
This is one of the best metal riff ever.
Need more black metal on the channel
Such a timeless classic. It's silly and simple but chills my blood everytime even after all this time. You should maybe listen to a song of theirs called Valkyrie just for fun. Same band, keep in mind.
Silly? This album is genius
@@michaelhudson2912 I think he means the idea of the writing is silly: like someone just sitting there playing the same riff for minutes on end lol. It is genius though, they were the first to just do it that raw and repetitive for the sake of it
This bands wildest compositions are definitely in the goatlord album, in his lovely Kingdom is a particular favorite of mine
Satyricon - Mother North
Emperor - Thus Spake the Nightspirit
Dissection - Where Dead Angels Lie
Dark Funeral - The Eternal Eclipse
The Kovenant - Bringer of the Sixth Sun
You should listen to these to start appreciating Black Metal
ohhhhh +1 for The Kovenant, such an underrated band but still perhaps one of the best compositions in the genre
@@Videkiazene hell yes!
btw darkthrone were not a live band . The project became a 2-piece shortly after the realese of this record.
Some trve kvlt on the show B)
It's all about passion and dedication to this particular scene of the metal genre. I mean, becoming mainstream and very successful commercially was not the goal of any of the lo-fi trend black metal bands. They were purely driven by their passion to express the very essence of certain emotions and artistic visions and convey their philosophical ideas in this particular manner which happens to be very dark, cold and musically oppressive. While for many it sounds comically bad on first listen, the quality of the production is not the real focus of this type of music. On first listen, one would immediately notice the production quality issues but ultimately that is not what it's all about. Consider the times when you immediately connected with a certain song when it had just the right vibe. If you don't vibe with this kinda stuff, chances are you won't any time soon unless somehow you are able to connect with the emotional content that this type of band attempts to convey.
As I listened to your review I thought that you might enjoy a particular band that popped to mind. An Irish band called Primordial started off as a lo-fi kinda black metal style band and I recommend their Spirit the Earth Aflame album if you want to try to embrace the black metal sound better. You'd find many similar qualities as you have found here but there is definitely more musical complexity and variation for you to look forward to :)
Thanks for that info regarding lo-fi Black Metal. As for Primordial, the name sounds familiar but I don't have a reaction for it so I've probably only seen it in passing. But that also means you're not the only one suggesting them :)
@@CriticalReactions Forgot to mention that I was talking about the original bands that started this movement but essentially this is the legacy sound of what is often referred to as "trve kvlt" or the true Norwegian black metal style. There's quite a fascinating history tied to this music if music history interests you enough in this case.
There are some wonderful suggestions for legendary, epic black metal throughout the conment section here but the reason I suggested Primordial is mainly because I think you will genuinely be able to enjoy their progressive take on black metal. I can think of some other good stuff but while purists tend to complain about bands selling out and stuff like that, Primordial never felt sell-out in spite of the many compositional advancement they made over the years. In 1998 and 2000 they released A Journey's End and Spirit the Earth aflame respectively which solidifies or marks the point when the band acquires their own unique sound. Beautiful variety of sound qualities while maintaining an overall dark, oppressive and at times depressive sorts of atmosphere. Long story short, I think it's a more accessible take on the music that was meant to feel gloomy and dark yet passionate to an extreme.
Darkthrone are one of the Big Black metal bands of the 90s.
And still going strong to this day. Their latest album Eternal Hails is so different to their older stuff but still a great album. Actually, I've loved every album they've ever done and been into their stuff for 30 years.
Would really like to hear your opinion on 'Saor - Forgotten Paths'
your opinion lends me to believe, "With Strength i burn" by Emperor would be a better sell. it has, you know, variables and shit.
Thus Spake the Nightspirit would be a better pick imo
@@veneficus582 i find nothing wrong in that suggestion.
i myself literally flipped an actual coin. it decided it was strength. the entire album is a masterpiece. hard to pick just one
@@somberlightSaw Emperor live here in LA last night...they did both songs y'all mentioned.
Never seen this guy's videos before but it seems like Emperor's technical prowess would be more up his alley.
The thing that contextualises this is hearing their first album "Soulside Journey" afterwards, and realising it predates it significantly. Then it really shows how directly the stylistic approach is delivered. There is an instrumental album in between the first and second album that was recently officially released ("Goatlord") that bridges the gap perfectly, which really hits the spot for me.
this is masterful stuff!
One of the greatest things ever made.
The drumming is done with "blast beats" - alternating bass and snare at a furious speed. Agree that they're blurred up as to the tone of the separate drums but I think the difference is audible to me.
This is not blast beats
@@MetalZoned but?...
@@progperljungman8218 The signature of blast beats is that it is all 16th notes, not alternating between bass and snare. This is a skank beat, more common in thrash and punk
Darkthrone are so f'***ing good. When, hopefully, they gig again... I'm there (at Rockefeller)
you call it a wall of sound, i call it a storm. to understand this sort of music, you need to have had the experience of having been in norway, in winter, in a blizzard on top of a mountain or in a forest, at night. the relentless howling of the wind, the cold. it's all about atmosphere.
dude I am from Romania and i love it what is your point here ?:))
Funny how I had the same vision of this song and album a long time ago, nowadays is on my top, at least when it comes to
black metal. Is a very unique album, almost like listening to a cold storm screaming melodies, like a constant rain.
it’s like boarding a night train in the winter storm.
Only thing I’ll say is black vocals are not meant to be warmed up to
You don't hear a bass guitar? xD My ears have gone through a few years of playing drums without protection and all that entails, but strangely enough I can hear the bass very distinctly.
THE RIFF.
I love this song
Pure distant, hate, despair, repetiotious discomfort. Everything true black metal is about.
The quintessence of Raw Black Metal
You should react to "I am the Black Wizards" by Emperor. Its more interesting.
Saw them perform it live last night...amazing moment to finally see in person.
My fav darkthrone album true kvlt
Beautiful song.
One of the only albums I have on CD.
Thank you for a nice and insightful reaction and analysis, as always! It's interesting to hear your reaction from a "beginner" viewpoint, seems like it's easy to take things for granted when you're submerged in it like I am. Alot of the other guys have made on-point comments here for you about the sound quality and playing of this type of music and I find it needless for me to repeat all that. Instead I'm linking an interview/documentary type of clip for you. In here is Darkthrone's drummer Fenriz expressing his views on music and production quality especially about drums. He is very on-point I would say, whilst also being fun in a nerdy way. I think this was aired on regular tv about 8 years ago on Norweigan national tv. But don't worry, it has english subtitles (eventhough they aren't perfect - so you'd best starting to learn norweigan instead! 😉)
th-cam.com/video/_aRu_3WvE6c/w-d-xo.html
Btw, they spent a lot of time on getting the drum sound right. haha
Also, fun fact, they used to do technical death metal, but they thought that wasn't the right way to do it. It's all very much intentional, as you say. :)
They actually talk a lot about their music and thoughts about it etc, but quite a bit has been interviews in Norwegian. They are one of the original creators of the genre, and they are still releasing albums, but they've gone down a path very few has gone after them. You are very much correct about the punk influence too, which they get more into with their later albums.
No worries in not liking this one, I knew when I saw the track that there was a very low chance of you liking it.
I like this album quite a bit nowadays, but I had trouble getting into the really "kvlt"/lo-fi black metal when I started to listen to black metal as well.
It took me quite a while to enjoy a lot of the "bigger"/more known black metal albums because of this, but I actually enjoy this production nowadays (to some extent, there are still demo's and albums by black metal bands that are basically a long hisss to my ears, which I don't particularly enjoy).
The weird thing is that I did enjoy their first black metal album from first listen, which some people feel has really bad production as well, but for some reason it that one never bothered me. I also enjoyed their first one, but that one has a completely different production and is a different style altogether.
Also, Darkthrone is one of the pioneers of the second wave of black metal (next to Mayhem you recently checked out and some other Norwegian bands). I don't know how big their concerts are, but I can imagine they are somewhat known in a lot of the metal scene. They also changed their style/genre a couple of times over the years, although most of it always incorporate some black metal influences.
They don't do concerts. Fenriz specifically is against playing live, so Darkthrone hasn't done so since 1996 (and even before then was extremely rare.)
@@richardenvy Thanks, I didn't know that. I have heard from other bands before that they don't like playing live, but not from them. It would also require them to get guest musicians since they are a two man band nowadays.
Theres really not a lot to analyze. You got like what 3-4 riffs total?
Love darkthrone. Probably could have found a better song to start off with to get a better idea what they are about. To walk the infernal fields has that oldschool feel but has interesting enough riffs to analyze.
I think you are ready for Burzum - Dunkelheit
So pure
Hm, I find the bass guitar to be surprisingly audible in this. It's not a lot of low frequencies, but the instrument is clearly there.
How about cosmic black metal? This genre has progressive elements which you would like. The legendary Mare Cognitum is my recommendation. I have three tracks for suggestion, pick one and go with it if you want:
1. Venus
2. Constellation hipparchia
3. First point of Aries
I love cosmic black metal so much, I’m glad to see others enjoy it as well
@@Benjizzmo That's awesome. Yea it's very transcendental. First Point of Aries is my favorite Mare Cognitum's track nowdays.
This is THE classic BM song for me
So pure... so cold... Transylvanian hungeeeeeeeer. Love it 🤘
CR: "Emotionally draining oppressive drone"
Me, a black metal fan: "Nice"
Think this is the definition of an black metal sound.
Personally i preffer their album "A Blaze in Northern Sky".
Please do “Fall of Reason” or “Control and Resistance “ by Watchtower
You need to check out The Somberlain, from Dissection.
on this album and the album before it they intentionally left really long gaps between tracks, as a direct inversion of things like slayer's reign in blood where the songs have no space between them at all
Goddamn Gallows are sorta country and they covered Venom. check them out.
I grew up liking later black metal and when I first heard this song on Pandora, I hated it. Now, years later, Darkthrone is one of my favorite bands, and mostly just their first four albums (not including Soulside Journey, the death metal album).
Very cool of you to check this out, I get that it's not your thing, appreciate your honesty. It's definitely not for everyone. It's basically two guys doing everything, and the drummer Fenriz recorded commentary over several of their albums that was released a few years ago. It is really insightful and I think would help understand where they're coming from. For instance, this song was devised while working an overnight shift for the Norwegian postal service, maybe that's why it's so bleak lol. You can check out his commentary to this song here: th-cam.com/video/ELes6XmMcBs/w-d-xo.html
Very complete reaction and comentary,. Was ineteresting to watch. Try reacting to early Ulver stuff. Any song from the Nattens madrigal L.P.
He did react to early Ulver:
th-cam.com/video/N12CXeeRZiQ/w-d-xo.html
That being said, it was the first Ulver album.
Nattens Madrigal is one album that is very difficult for me to listen to even though I am more than used to a lot of the earlier black metal production nowadays (it's actually the album I had in mind when I said that some albums are still to raw of a production for me in a previous comment).
I recently tried to listen to it again (after the Ulver videos when i was deciding on which CD's to buy since I used to listen to them quite a bit) and it just literally hurts my ears. I can hear through all the fuzz that there is good music there, but this is one were the production hurts my enjoyment (and I generally like sloppy/rawer production over extremely polished production). I know i have listened to it completely a couple of times in the past, but I couldn't do it this time.
Again, I don't mind early Darkthrone or Burzum and I do enjoy the previous Albums by Ulver, but Nattens Madrigal bounces off for some reason. I know it's very loved though.
Very true, me and my friends jokingly call the album Tinnitus Madrigal.
@@neck_acrobatics This is gold
Brrrrrrrr 🥶
The purpose of low fi production in this type of black metal is to create an obscure and secretive atmosphere. If you want to goes metaphysical, the purpose is to hide the very nature of the music into an esoteric field, in order to perform obscure musical magic. To put it simple: this is religious music, like gregorian chanting.
Not every dark throne song is like that. But TH is great
Dark throne never played live. They are still active. released 18 albums. Remember that when they released this song, it was a very new style. No one had heard anything like this before.
They did play live until around 92
@@kittavares4334 Just a few shows and that was while they still played death metal.
There was a live show in 2004. The band was basically Satyricon but Nocturno Culto was on Vocals.
If I remember correctly Varg burzum wrote exactly half the lyrics too this album..at the time of release I loved this listened too it over and over..nowadays I don't care for it very boring
This album, and really the whole black metal movement, was a rebellion against the "trendy", "overproduced" death metal at the time. If you're interested in what the band was capable of musically, listen to their debut Soulside Journey.
Honestly, whenever I hear people talk about how dark cold and brutal true cvlt black metal is, I can't help but disagree. Funeral Doom strikes me as a far more cold dark and brutal genre. And I don't mean that to throw black metal under the bus, because I do like alot of black metal... but Transcendence Into the Peripheral by Disembowelment came out a year before Transilvanian Hunger and yet its more deserving of being called dark cold and brutal.
I love Funeral Doom but I don't think they can be compared to Black Metal, even bands that take their aesthetics from Black Metal like Nortt and Wormphlegm. Raw Black metal is angry and driven by cold tightly focused hatred. Funeral Doom on the other hand is more like scary and demented. Wormphlegm makes me feel uneasy, in a good way. Anyway, it is a feeling I attribute to be closer to Death Metal.
@@MaaZeus I agree with you mostly, but I'm more talking about the language people use to talk about Black Metal. Black Metal is very aggressive and angry, but it doesn't strike me as DARK. It's far to human to be dark. When Funeral Doom is angry, it's a seething evil otherworldly hatred. Like the primordial origin of evil itself whispering in your ear.
Black Metal and Death Metal are more like giving into the uglier suppressed thought for a moment to give catharsis.
I don't consider dISEMBOWELMENT to be funeral doom...they transcend all labels. But I will die on a hill defending my opinion that they created the greatest heavy album of all time. Newbies need to turn off the lights and crank up Cerulean Transience to peak volume.
Black Metal definitely isn't for everyone. Even for alot of Metalheads. Takes a while to warm up to.
Not all Black Metal has this low fie production. This is more something a product of the early 90's "2nd Wave" of Black Metal. Modern bands have better production but still retain that cold rawness that is mandatory for Black Metal
Side note: this is considered "slow" for Black Metal ;)
Is this really that slow for BM? When I think of slow BM, bands like Gehenna come to mind.
Anyone who writes a song is a composer.
Do yourself a favor and check out Satyricon- mother north live at the opera.
I have a time machine and did this one for ya.....in the past! th-cam.com/video/tye17Fg6qBk/w-d-xo.html
Should have done my research
"making songs that sound cool" ... and here i was, thinking that's the entire idea behind music....
Try shoegaze (My Bloody Valentine - Loveless)... :) pop + fuzz
I once ☝️ literally with my friends recorded a cover of this song on my ghetto blaster 🤘 My friend literally played cardboard boxes for the drums 🤷🏻♂️ It sounded nearly as good as the original 😂
However 🤔 despite this satirical comparison 🤷🏻♂️
This was an extremely defining album for the time 🤘
Highly influencing to the Black Metal scene 😂
Interestingly, this album is something of and outlier for them overall, and they themselves seem to sort of regret it as they've gotten older.
As they've gone on, they've branched out into punk and traditional metal a lot, and the vocal style has changed completely. They're almost kind of goofy old dads who love old metal now. The album 'Underground Resistance' could almost because considered "fun".
It's shitty but i still love it.
Exactly!
Fenriz sid this song had no intention of being aggressive, but rather trancelike and introspective like Burzum. Hateful, misanthropic, but not aggressive...
I've known this album for 20 years already, never really liked it, but over the last years I've come to appreciate the atmosphere and production very much. The songs are very boring unfortunately. Try "Skald Av Satans Sol", from the same album, also very boring. But the intro, with the sloppy riff, and then the awesome drumfill, which goes into the fast stuff, it's furocious, and the production adds to that I feel and it's very cool, but after one minute I've heard enoung...
They don't play live because live shows are for posers lol bands like this are doing 30-40 min sets and this song is kinda slow honestly.
Great album, probably their best, but Darkthrone is not a good starter for a new listener of the genre. haha
Must be a man to enjoy this.
Cringedork comment.
Sounds like this is being played through a toaster hole.
Transylvanian Hunger is an odd one for me too, I like black metal and Darkthrone's other records but this album is a frustrating listen.
The "everything is fully intentional" isnt true in general. Some people will be mad now, but I say it harsh and short:
Not all, but many bands did what they did because they couldnt do better. Neither on the instrument nor on the recording. Nocturno Culto and Fenriz could barely play any instrument when they founded the band. There is no intention behind the very very limited guitar work, they just cant play guitar and the drummer recorded some old snippets in his bedroom.
Usually, those are the real stories in early black metal. you could say they later intentionally stayed with what they unintentioanlly created. But there was no "lets record boring drums and shitty guitar in a quality you can barely ask people to pay money for, call it black metal and have success" intention.
While I get what you are saying and I can see how that can be the case for quite a few bands, I am not so sure if it's true in this case.
Their first album is a death metal album with better production and which is more "technical" as far as the playing goes (album: Soulside Journey). So I don't know if you have listened to that one, but it's a far cry from the other albums they have created (I actually quite like it as well).
I obviously don't know how that one was recorded and how much cut and paste it was, but to me it doesn't sound like they "could barely play an instrument" (but granted, I'm not a musician).
What I have read (but again, who knows) is that their production was somewhat to oppose the production of Swedish death metal (although, it's difficult to know for sure how much of that is just hearsay and what is real). That being said, I can see how some of the production in this genre (and the same goes for some punk) is just because of the lack of funds and just because they "couldn't do better" like you put it.
I do agree that there is a good chance that not all of it is intentional.
I also would be surprised if the first bands made this "new" type of basically lowly produced music to be successful. Some of them switchted from the way more popular death metal genre to black metal. While I am not Norwegian, so I don't know how popular black metal was back then, I would be very surprised if it was super popular and that it sold well. I basically see it as a way for them to "protest" or express themselves just like punk was before. I don't think any of them expected it to be popular outside of Norway, let alone that it would be popular decades later.
I can't believe someone managed to write something this wrong in the internet.
@@muzorewi
Which reply do you mean? The original or my reply?
If it's mine, care to elaborate on what is wrong with it? So that I can learn from it, instead of just knowing that someone said " you are wrong" with no further explanation.
@@MaartenT gerdokurt's bizarre comment. I was essentially echoing your sentiment.
@@MaartenT you havent heard of soulside journey do you?
Darkthrone (and Mayhem and Burzum) are pretty much the epitome of the kind of black metal I dislike. I generally don't like lo-fi, basement level production in general, but when that combines with music that is also so minimal and repetitive pretty much an instant turn-off. I can tolerate such production if the music is more interesting (as with early Emperor), or if the songwriting is top-notch (like Bob Dylan's The Basement Tapes), but otherwise it's pretty much an instant turnoff. I think the appeal of this music is precisely that it will turn off all but the most dedicated metalheads who hate everything that's even remotely commercial or has any kind of mass appeal. It's like a badge of honor to be so hardcore that you can like something that 99.9999% of people couldn't tolerate. Plus there's the fact that the music itself gives off a similar "fuck everyone, we're going to make music we like without hardly any resources at our disposal," which is a very punk attitude (hence black metal being metal's punk music).
Edit: After mentioning The Basement Tapes I realize I missed a golden opportunity to recommend a track off that. The Basement Tapes are basically the OG of lo-fi music and also where the Americana and alternative country genres originate from. At the time Dylan (and The Band) didn't think they were inventing anything, they were just chilling and writing/recording songs at Big Pink (a rather inconspicuous house in New York) never intending to commercially release them.